Various techniques have been used to deploy instrumentation payloads from spacecraft. Typically, deployment is initiated from a storage bay after the spacecraft has reached a selected orbit or other extraterrestrial location. The instrumentation may include solar panels, measurement equipment, imaging devices, communication antennae and the like. As can be appreciated, such instrumentation may be very sensitive in nature and should be deployed with minimal vibration or shock. Further, in many situations, the deployment of such devices must be achieved with high reliability and positional accuracy (e.g., antennae positioning to transceive signals from specific earth-based stations).
The design of deployment devices that are capable of safely, accurately, reliably and repeatably delivering equipment from a stowed position to a deployed position presents a number of challenges. For example, the deployment device should comprise an actuator that can selectively apply the necessary energy to physically move the instrumentation to a deployed position, yet do so in a manner that avoids detrimental acceleration/deceleration. As such, any mechanical or other uncertainty (e.g., frictional resistance variability) that may effect an increase in the design drive force should be reduced. Further, the actuator should be interfaced with support componentry in a manner that reduces any potential for operational failure or maintenance requirements. More generally, the actuator itself should be designed so that the failure of any single piece of mechanically or electrically responsive componentry does not disable the actuator. Finally, the actuator and support componentry should interface to yield positional accuracy/rigidity relative to the spacecraft in a deployed position while also providing a compact arrangement in the stowed position.